Wake Island Airfield

Map of Wake Island

After pioneering air service into Wake Island in 1935, Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) continued to serve the airfield for many years. In 1950, Wake Island was a stop on Pan Am's round the world service between San Francisco and New York City with the airline operating double-decker Boeing 377 Stratocruiser propliners into the airfield.[1] Westbound Pan Am flights continued on to Guam, Tokyo and other destinations in Asia before proceeding to Europe and New York City while eastbound flights operated a Henderson Field (Midway Atoll)-Honolulu-San Francisco routing. By 1969, Wake Island was a scheduled stop on a round trip transpacific flight operated by Pan Am between San Francisco and Saigon in the former country of South Vietnam.[2] This passenger service was operated twice a week with a Boeing 707 intercontinental jetliner. These flights also served Honolulu and Guam nonstop from Wake Island. At the same time, Pan Am was operating daily all cargo flights into Wake Island with a Boeing 707 jet freighter. Depending on the day of the week, this all cargo service was flown into Wake Island on a westbound route that included New York City, Los Angeles, Travis Air Force Base in northern California (which was a flag stop for military cargo and mail), San Francisco and Honolulu. Continuing all cargo service was operated by the Pan Am 707 jet freighter westbound to Guam, Tokyo, Saigon and Hong Kong.[3] Pan Am subsequently discontinued all flights into Wake Island by the early 1970s thus ending many years of passenger and cargo air service.[4] Wake Island was one of the smallest destinations, population-wise, ever to receive scheduled Pan Am jet service.

Japan Airlines (JAL) used both Wake Island and Honolulu as stops on its initial Tokyo-San Francisco service using Douglas DC-6 prop aircraft in the mid-1950s.[5] The Wake Island technical stop on this route disappeared with the introduction of Douglas DC-8 jetliners by JAL.

Wake Island Air Terminal Building

British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC, which subsequently became British Airways) also used Wake Island as a refueling stop. During the late 1950s, BOAC operated Bristol Britannia turboprop aircraft on their twice a week westbound service between the U.K. and Asia via the U.S.[6] The routing of these flights was London-New York-San Francisco-Honolulu-Wake Island-Tokyo-Hong Kong. The Wake Island stop was discontinued when BOAC replaced the Britannia propjet with Boeing 707 aircraft on the same route as part of their around the world services.[7]

Transocean Air Lines, a U.S. air carrier based in Oakland, California, was operating Lockheed Constellation propliner service into the airport in 1958 on a routing of Oakland-Honolulu-Wake Island-Guam-Okinawa with round trip flights being operated twice a week.[8]

Real Transportes Aereos, a Brazilian airline, also used the airfield as technical stop for its flights between South America and Japan during the early 1960s. In 1961, Real was operating weekly Douglas DC-6B round trip service with a routing of São Paulo-Rio de Janeiro-Manaus-Bogota-Mexico City-Los Angeles-Honolulu-Wake Island-Tokyo.[9]

Another airline that operated into Wake Island was Philippine Airlines with Douglas DC-8 jetliners on a daily westbound service from San Francisco and Honolulu to Manila during the early 1970s.[10] The airfield was a technical stop for fuel for this Philippine Airlines flight as the DC-8 did not have the range to fly nonstop from Honolulu to Manila.

On 31 August 2006, the super typhoon Ioke (class 5) struck Wake Island. Significant damage was expected to all structures and infrastructure, including the runway. Members of the 36th Contingency Response Group at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam were estimating large costs to repair the airfield facility. On 8 September 2006, 16 members of the Group arrived at Wake to make the initial assessments and found that the runway and taxiways were still in an acceptable operational condition, with just a requirement to clear debris. Other structures were damaged, and were repaired in 5 days. With the base up and running again, another 53 members arrived by air to support continued reconstruction.